Public to pay for parking at Bus Terminal commercial area soon

NO MORE FREE PARKING SOON: A street at the Pelawan Commercial Area where there are sufficient parking lots for the time being, but shop owners are complaining of the sinking land. Come June 1, motorists will have to pay for parking here.





SIBU: Come June 1, there will be no more free parking in Pelawan commercial area, where the Sibu Bus Terminal is situated.

Chairman of Sibu Municipal Council’s Traffic Standing Committee Robert Lau Hui Yew confirmed this yesterday, saying there would be parking charges similar to those parking lots in the town’s business district.

He said the council had intended to impose the parking charges at the beginning of this year, but the plan was delayed until yesterday.

“However, we are not implementing it now because we intend to raise the roads there first, and with the improved infrastructure, we shall impose the charges from mid-year,” he explained.

Lau called for cooperation from vehicle owners when the regulation was implemented.

He said the council had already painted the numbers on the parking lots.

Meanwhile, a shop owner there told the Borneo Post yesterday the Pelawan commercial area surrounding the bus terminal had enjoyed a boom over the last few years.

“The boom has come not only from the bus terminal and its passengers, but because it (the commercial area) has also become Sibu’s food paradise,” he enthused, saying it all began with a restaurant serving cheap delicious crabs.

“Now, the area also houses the largest restaurant in town,” added the shop owner.

He said the area might be some distance from the town, but it was where people could even find Western food.

According to him, the commercial area is serving one of the best beefsteaks in town, not to mention the steamboat, Shanghai food and other delicious hawker food.

The only complaint that the shop owner had was the sinking condition of the commercial land.

“Although it was only being built a few years ago, the problem has become quite serious.

“Between the road and the five-foot-way, it could be knee and thigh-high.”

He urged the council to work with the developer to address the problem to ensure continuity of the boom.